Serendipity
- “what does serendipity mean”
- “is serendipity just luck”
- “who invented the word serendipity”
- “serendipity vs coincidence”
:: COMPARE ::
SerendipityvsLuck
The short answer
Luck requires nothing of you. Serendipity, as coined, requires two things at once: that you were not looking for it, and that you were sharp enough to see it. Drop the sagacity and you have merely renamed luck.
Side by side
| Aspect | Serendipity | Luck |
|---|---|---|
| Requires alertness | Yes | No |
| Requires not-seeking | Yes | No |
| Can be cultivated | Partly | No |
| Walpole would allow it | Yes | No |
Which one you meant
Readers who land here meaning Serendipity rather than Luck are usually searching for phrases like “what does serendipity mean”, “is serendipity just luck”, “who invented the word serendipity”.
Where the confusion comes from
“Serendipity means a happy accident — good luck.”
Walpole's definition has two required ingredients. The princes were 'always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of'. Sagacity — the wit to interpret the accident — is not optional. His own example: one prince deduced a mule was blind in the right eye because the grass had been eaten only on the left side of the road. That is inference, not fortune. Walpole called the process 'accidental sagacity'.
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